Sample Website Annotation


Homeless. 21 Mar. 2008. United States Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.hud.gov/homeless/index.cfm>.


Summary of Website and its Appearance/Organization
This website provides information on homelessness in the United States. It lists resources for those who are homeless, for those who provide assistance to the homeless, and for people who want to do something to help the homeless. There are also many other web links to homeless resources. The website was last updated on March 21, 2008, so I know it is current. It is clearly organized, with topic headings and a navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page. There are no ads on this site. The URL has a .gov suffix, which means that it is sponsored by the United States government.

Author Information
To find out about the author, I backtracked the URL of the website to find the home page for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The authors of this article are people on the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development staff. This department is a large government agency that is run by Secretary Alphonso Jackson, who is a member of the Presidential Cabinet. There is also extensive contact information provided at the bottom of the website.

Mission Statement or Purpose
According to the website, the mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is “to increase homeownership, support community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination. To fulfill this mission, HUD will embrace high standards of ethics, management and accountability and forge new partnerships--particularly with faith-based and community organizations--that leverage resources and improve HUD's ability to be effective on the community level.”

Justify Why This is the Top Choice Website or Blog
Based on these criteria, I would rate this a quality source. At this stage in my research, I am looking for basic information on homelessness, and this website is useful because it gives me a good idea of what resources the Federal government has available to help the homeless.